Jimmy Horton Charges To 99th Career Modified Win At Bridgeport Speedway

Bridgeport, NJ – Neshanic Station, NJ’s Jimmy Horton made history at the 5/8th mile oval Bridgeport Speedway on Saturday night, winning the twenty-five lap modified feature, giving the seven time champion his 99th career big block modified win at the track. Bridgeport’s all-time leading feature winner started the main event in sixth place, and battled Lehighton, PA’s Steve Bottcher for lap after lap for the lead, before making an exciting fourth turn pass for the lead with just two laps to go. Bottcher held on to finish in the runner up spot, followed by 2000 modified champion Wade Hendrickson. In sportsman action, Paulsboro, NJ’s Billy Harris drove the D’Antonio #3 to his second career victory, winning the twenty-lap feature event. Newcomer Shane Smith, an experienced sprint racer who is competing regularly at Bridgeport this season, won his career first win, taking the Bridgeport Jasper Racing Engines Sprint twenty lap A-Main.

Steve Bottcher had the Overhead Doors #0 on the pole for the modified feature, and blasted from the start to grab the lead to open the event. By the end of the first lap, the second generation modified driver had built up a six-car length lead over Keith Hoffman, who was now in the runner up spot. One lap later, Wade Hendrickson slid the Rio Brothers #R10 past Hoffman and set his sights on the leader. Horton was also making his way to the front, and on lap seven he was racing door to door with Hendrickson for second place. Horton shot under Hendrickson in turn four, and controlled second entering turn one and began to chase down the leader. At the halfway sign from Starter Dennis Weir, Bottcher still had the lead with Horton in hot pursuit and closing in. With ten to go, Horton was right on Bottcher’s tail and was able to pull along side to battle for the lead, with the two actually leaning on each other exiting turn four. While Bottcher and Horton had the crowd on the edge of their seats, a battle for third place was going on with Hendrickson, Mike Iles, and 1994 Modified Champion MeMe DeSantis all running under a blanket. Coming through turns three and four on the way to getting the two to go signal, Horton again used the low groove out of turn four to dive under Bottcher for the lead. Horton began to pull away and went on to get his 99th career win at New Jersey’s fastest dirt track, with Bottcher, Hendrickson, DeSantis, and Hoffman filling out the top five. Qualifying heats for the thirty-five big blocks were won by Horton, Hendrickson, and Paul Weaver, while two-time Sportsman Champ Carmine Infante took the consolation race.

Brian Godown, who made the tow to the big 5/8th mile clay oval from Ringoes, NJ, charged into the lead from his fourth starting spot at the start of the twenty lap sportsman feature. A caution flag on lap two eliminated any advantage that Godown had built up, and on the ensuing restart, Billy Harris, who had started the race in fifth place, soared past Godown to take over the lead. At the same time, 2000 Sportsman Champ Mark Forte moved into third place from his eighth starting spot, and he starting to press Godown for second place. The race went caution free until lap fourteen, and on the restart, Harris had more than enough power in his Truppi-King 9:1 Bridgeport motor to hold off all challengers. Forte and Godown raced side by side, with Forte taking the low groove and Godown running the topside of the new Bridgeport clay. Neither of these two had anything for Harris, and at the finish Harris had his second career sportsman victory, with Godown, Forte, Ron Roberts, and Steve Lindale completing the top five.

The Jasper Racing Engines Bridgeport Sprints again put on a high speed entertaining A-Main, with Shane Smith piloting his own #0 to the lead from his outside pole starting spot at the beginning of the event. While Smith had control of the top spot, the action behind him was hot as Greg Lotosky, 2001 Champion Jeff Foote, and Jeff “Mr. Excitement “ Mueller all took turns trying to catch Smith while fighting each other. Mueller finally pulled in front of the other two drivers and began his assault on Smith, while Foote never gave up and stayed right on the rear of Mueller. Mueller was using the extreme outside groove of the raceway, and a lap sixteen brush with the wall proved to be his downfall, as he had to retire from the race a lap later with a flat right rear tire. Foote tried to chase down Smith, but the Selbyville, DE resident was not to be denied his career first win, holding off Foote as the two sliced through traffic. Following Smith and Foote across the finish line were Lotosky, Steve Fleetwood, and John Wyers. After exiting his winged sprinter in victory lane, the weary looking, but happy Smith said, after thanking all his sponsors and crew “ I’m used to racing 410 sprints in Pennsylvania where I raced for fifteenth place. This was really fun tonight. I’ve never been in victory lane before, but I sure like it!”

The Enduro Stocks saw their first action of the new season, with forty of the stockers signed in for their portion of the racing program. Steve Haegele had his #61 ready for racing and went on to win the fifty-lap race, leading every circuit around the track. Following Haegele across the line were 2001 Enduro Champ Dave Wilhelm, Curtis Nichols, Pat Hires, and Ken Watson.

NOTES: 135 racers jammed the spacious pits of the South Jersey speedway…Harris’ sportsman win was his first since 1998….On hand to catch the racing action on New Jersey’s fastest dirt track was the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame Museum Board President, Larry Ball. Ball was especially interested in the Jasper Racing Engines Bridgeport Sprints and came away impressed with the competitiveness and speed of the sealed motor racers….Coming up this week is the grand opening of the new Bridgeport ¼ Mile Speedway, which has been relocated to the front straight of the big track along with being redesigned with a wider racing surface and more banked turns to go with a slightly banked backstretch. This new track should provide some great high-speed action on Friday nights with three divisions of Micro Sprints competing on a weekly basis, along with the new four cylinder Street Stock class. If this isn’t enough racing action on a Friday night, add to the show the Street Stocks, who will compete on the big 5/8th mile oval, with a new purse structure that will see the stockers fighting for $800 to win, as long as a full field of racers sign in to the pits. For more information, call the track office at 856-467-4408 during regular business hours, or check out the track’s website at www.bridgeportspeedway.com.

BRIDGEPORT SPEEDWAY RESULTS – 3/30/02

MODIFIEDS

Heat 1 – Horton, Hoffman, Howard, Radd, Laubach, Hirthler

Heat 2 – Hendrickson, Adams, DeSantis, Schultz, McVay, Dekutoski

Heat 3 – Weaver, Bottcher, Iles, Chester, Franz, Dixon

Consi – Infante, Durand, Ratoskey, Schaffer, Cox, Schweibinz

Modified Feature – 25 Laps

Jimmy Horton, Steve Bottcher, Wade Hendrickson, MeMe DeSantis, Keith Hoffman, Don Radd, Jimmy Chester, Paul Weaver, Carmine Infante, Dave Adams, Rick Schaffer, Tad Cox, Stephan Durand, Rick Laubach, Mike Franz, Mike Iles, Rob Ratoskey, Don Barone, Joe Dekutoski, Larry McVay, Duane Howard, Jared Schultz, Bud Schweibinz, Kevin Hirthler DNS- John Dixon

SPORTSMAN

Heat 1 – Scherer, Roberts, Lileck, Miller, P.Collins, Lineman

Heat 2 – Harris, Lindale, Forte, Pratt, Briggs, Pursell

Heat 3 – Godown, Marra, Wescott, K.Collins, Sarkisian, Tinnes

Consi 1 – Britt, Burkhart, Lozorak, Mills

Consi 2 – Cogdill, Klingmeyer, McDonnell, Horton

Sportsman Feature – 20 Laps

Billy Harris, Brian Godown, Mark Forte, Ron Roberts, Steve Lindale, Bob Sarkisian, Jim Scherer, Richie Pratt, Tom Miller, Paul Collins, Bob Lineman Jr, Andy Burkhart, Joe Tinnes, Blaine Sadler, Jim Britt, Bill Briggs, Judd Mills, Jay Horton, Bob Lileck, Kevin Collins, Sam Wescott, Paul Marra Sr, Frank McDonnell, Bill Klingmeyer, Dan Cogdill, John Pursell DNS- Steve Lozorak

BRIDGEPORT SPRINTS

Heat 1 – Lotoskey, Brown, Nagy, Durbin, Wyers, Piersig

Heat 2 – Smith, Mueller, Fleetwood, Foote, Lawler, Stellfox

Bridgeport Sprint Feature – 20 Laps

Shane Smith, Jeff Foote, Greg Lotoskey, Steve Fleetwood, John Wyers, Mike Piersig, Gary Mondschein, Chip Brown, Warren Durbin, Ron Karnbach, Steve Schmidt, Matt Beasley, Keith Anderson, Mares Stellfox, Hank Trum, Kevin Nagy, Duane Lawler, Jeff Mueller, Steve Strubble DNS- Jack Curtis

ENDURO STOCK FEATURE – 50 Laps

Steve Haegele, Dave Wilhelm, Curtis Nichols, Pat Hires, Ken Watson, Bob Hopely, Speedo Jager, Robert Benz, Steve Taylor, Mark Spencer